The Harlequin

chapter twenty-five

HE SMILED DOWN at me, shaking his head. Standing there, looking down at me, he looked pleasant, and like the end product of a few generations of WASP breeding; blond hair, blue eyes, maybe a little short at five foot eight, but he would have fit in in so many places. Then the polished charm began to melt away, like magic. I watched the real Edward fill his eyes and turn them from warm to cold as a deep winter sky. The color of his eyes was the same, but the look in them wasn't. The face was still and showed nothing. If I hadn't had vampires to compare with, I'd have said Edward gave better empty face than anyone I knew.

Once, seeing Edward at my bedside would have meant he'd come to kill me. Now, it meant I was safe. We were all safe, or as safe as we could be. Edward couldn't do much about metaphysical powers, but I trusted him to take care of the Harlequin's weapons and fighting skills. The magic was my department, but no one did armed combat better than Edward.

«Hey,» I said, and my voice still sounded dry.

His lips twitched. «Couldn't stay alive for just a few more hours, huh?» His voice held an edge of the smile that had been there, then settled to that empty middle-of-nowhere voice, no accent, no hint of where he'd started life.

«I'm alive,» I said.

«They had to restart your heart twice, Anita.»

Lillian, who had made herself scarce, came to stand beside him. «I'd appreciate it if you didn't scare my patient.»

«She likes the truth,» he said, without even looking at her.

«He's right, doc,» I said.

She sighed. «Fine, but let's ease her into it; she's been mostly dead all day.»

It took me a second to realize she'd made a joke. Edward gave her a look, then turned back to me. «According to the vamps, we don't have time to ease you into it.»

«Tell me what's been happening,» I said.

«There's too much, Anita. If I tell you everything, it will be dawn and your little vampires will be dead for good.»

«Tell me what I need to know, then,» I said.

«Jean-Claude used a lot of energy to wake every vamp in the city before he passed out.»

«I was there when he did it.»

«Don't interrupt,» and he was way too solemn for my comfort. «The vamps and shapeshifters came up with a plan that they think will net the most power for you to feed into Jean-Claude and Richard in the shortest amount of time.»

«Why are you telling me this? Why not Asher, or…»

«You interrupted,» he said, eyes cold, and face still so serious.

«Sorry,» I said.

Lillian made a noise that made us both look at her. «You said she'd take the news better from you, but I didn't believe you. I believe you now.»

He gave her a look.

«Sorry, I'll stand over here and stop wasting time.» She moved away from us.

He continued, «I don't like the plan and you're going to hate it, but I've listened to their reasoning and it's the best plan we've got.»

I raised a hand.

He actually smiled, but it never quite reached his eyes. «Yes.»

«You think it's a good plan?» I asked.

«I couldn't come up with a better one.»

I looked at him. «Really?»

He nodded. «Really.»

The fact that he couldn't come up with a better plan said a lot. Said enough that I didn't argue. «Okay, tell me the plan,» I said.

«You feed the ardeur on the head of another animal group, and take their energy the way you did the wererats'.» He didn't flinch or hesitate, even though he'd only known about the ardeur for a few hours. He'd landed in the middle of a crisis of metaphysical proportions and it hadn't fazed him, or if it had, it didn't show. In that moment I loved him, in a guy-buddy sort of way. He'd never fail me, or fuck with me, and I loved him for it.

«Which animal group?» I asked.

«The swans,» he said.

I gave him surprised face. «Say again?»

He smiled, that cold smile, but it was a real smile; he was amused. «I take it the swan king is not your buddy.»

«Not in that way. He and all the heads of the animal groups have been over to the house for dinner, but…«I shook my head and swallowed past that feeling of something in my throat that wasn't there, like a phantom pain. «I've never thought of him in that way, and there are larger, more powerful groups in St. Louis than the swans.»

«You knocked most of the wererats cold when you fed on their king,» Edward said.

«I did what?»

«You heard me.»

I remembered Jean-Claude's voice in my head, saying no when I went back for that last bit of energy from Rafael. «I didn't mean to,» I said.

Lillian peered around Edward's shoulder. «You're just lucky I was one of the few who didn't go down.»

«Why didn't you?»

She looked thoughtful, and sad, and then shook her head. «I don't know.»

«We don't have time to worry about the why,» Edward said.

«Agreed,» Lillian said.

I just nodded.

«The wererats still aren't a hundred percent, Anita. You did a real number on them. We can't afford for you to do the same to the werehyenas.»

«Not a problem. Narcissus is sooo not on my to-do list.»

His lips twitched, almost a smile, and then he gave in and laughed. «I've met him now, and…«He just shook his head, and said, «I wouldn't want to do him either, but he did come through for us. He let us have all the werehyenas that we asked for.»

A thought occurred to me. «If most of our muscle were knocked out, why didn't the Harlequin attack us?»

He nodded. «I don't know why they didn't attack.»

«They're supposed to be this uber-fighting team. Sort of you as a vampire—they should have attacked.»

«Asher and the other vampires have speculated a lot why the Harlequin didn't push the advantage. I'll tell you all of it later, but right now…«He made a movement as if he'd take my hand, and then his hands fell back. «Do you trust me?» he asked.

I frowned at him. «You know I do.»

«Then I've got the defenses covered, Anita. But only you can channel enough energy to Jean-Claude to keep the little vampires alive.»

I wanted to ask so many things, but he was right. I had to trust Edward to do his job, and I did, but… «There aren't that many swanmanes in the city,» I said.

«We asked the werelions first, but their Rex refused.»

«Joseph refused to help us?» I was shocked, and let it show.

«Yes.»

«We've bent over backward for the lions. Hell, I saved his life once, or twice.»

«His wife said he wasn't having sex with anyone but her.»

«This isn't about sex, Edward.»

He shrugged.

«The lions would let the vampires die.» I said it out loud, because I needed to hear it. I couldn't quite believe it.

«That's how I'd take it,» he said.

We looked at each other, and I felt my eyes go as cold as his. I think we were thinking the same thing. The lions would suffer for this. Ungrateful bastards.

«Less than two hours, Anita,» he said.

I nodded. «Which means we don't have time to be wrong, Edward. Are the swans enough energy?»

«Donovan Reece is the king of every swanmane in this country.»

«I know. He has to travel from group to group, looking in on them, settling problems. He's also begun talking to other cities about how well our furry coalition is doing here. He's not trying to start another coalition, just talking about it. We've actually had some phone calls from other cities, wanting details about how it works.»

«A politician,» Edward said.

I nodded. «Being swan king is an inborn power; I think you actually do come with the skills you need. Donovan says that usually a swan queen is born in the same generation, so they rule together, but for whatever reason there was no baby born with the birthmark, or the power to help him. It means he has double the duty.»

«He says that he leaves his swan maidens in the care of your leopards when he's gone for a while.»

I nodded. «There's only three of them in town.»

«They've stayed over at your house,» Edward said.

«Yeah.»

«Why?»

«They need someone to look after them sometimes.»

«Donovan said that, that you took care of his people. He says you rescued them once, and almost got killed doing it.»

«Yeah,» I said.

«He says that if you risk your life for his people, he would do the same for you, so what's a little sex between allies?»

«He didn't say that last part,» I said.

Edward grinned and shook his head. «Okay, but he did say, 'I would risk my life for Anita and her people. This is a small thing you ask of me.»

«That sounds like Donovan,» I said.

«He's offering to let you feed on every swanmane in the United States. There's maybe one to six in most major cities.»

«I had no idea there were that many of them.»

«I don't think anyone did but Donovan. He gave up a lot of intelligence, Anita. He didn't make me promise not to use it against him if I got a contract from someone who wanted me to go swan hunting.»

«Edward…»

He held up a hand, stopping me. «I'll promise you, if you ask.»

We looked at each other a second, and then I said, «Promise me you won't use anything you've learned against any of the animal groups.»

«I won't hunt any more swans,» He said.

«No, Edward, I mean it. You're going to have to learn things about vampires and the shapeshifters that you could use against them. I need your word of honor that what you learn won't come back to haunt them, or me.»

His face went to that cold, empty look. It was almost the look he used when he killed, except for a hint of anger in his eyes. «Even the lions?» he asked.

«They're members of our coalition.»

«That mean they're off limits?»

«No, it means we have to kick them out of the coalition before we do anything to them.»

He smiled then. «So honorable.»

«A girl's got to have standards,» I said.

He nodded. «As long as the lions answer for it, I'm cool.»

«One crisis at a time, but yeah, they'll answer for it.»

He gave that cold, pleased smile. It was Edward's usual smile, the real one. The smile that said the monster was home, and happy to be there. I didn't need a mirror to know that the smile I gave back was almost a match for it. I used to worry about becoming like Edward. Lately, I counted on it.